Back when I was in the Air Force the Safety Manual had it that the
vast majority of accidents were caused by unsafe acts and I believe
that the current theory hasn't changed.

On the other hand it seems that the Safety Managers have given up
trying to keep the fools from sticking their finger in the power saw
and now are relying more and more on building things so that you can't
stick you finger in the hole.

When I was fresh out of school and just started working as a plant
engineer, one of my first duties was to supervise the installation of a
certain machine. It had two steel pinch rollers at the very top that
pulled in a six foot wide web of material for processing.

When the installation was done, the plant safety committee came around
to inspect. They looked at those pinch rollers (about 8 feet up above
ground level) and called over the tallest workman they could find. They
asked him to stand on tiptoe on a nearby step and see if he could reach
the rollers.

He strained and strained to reach up over the top of the machine, then
said "Yeah, I can just barely touch one of them." Immediately the head
of the safety team said "We need a trip cord across there, so if someone
tries that, it will immediately shut the machine down."

I had a somewhat similar experience. The Wing was undergoing its
annual "Operational Readiness" inspection and part of that inspection
is, of course, a safety inspection.

The safety inspector came in the shop and after inspecting the shop
for some time said, "where is something unsafe? I've got to write
something up." I pointed to a floor mounted drill press that had a
drive motor higher then the average man could reach and said, "That
belt guard is loose." I waved one of the troops over and told him to
tighten that belt guard."

The Safety Inspector wrote up "Loose Belt guard, corrected at time of
inspection", and we both were happy. I will admit though that the guy
I told to tighten the guard was a bit puzzled because it wasn't loose
:-)
--
Cheers,

Back in the eighties, I took a Youth Hostel tour of southern England.
After we'd been there a couple of weeks, I skillfully executed a
perfect left turn -- and found myself on the opposite side of the road
from my companions.

I had stopped being nervous about riding on the "wrong" side of the
road.

--
joy beeson at comcast dot nethttp://wlweather.net/PAGEJOY/
The above message is a Usenet post.
I don't recall having given anyone permission to use it on a Web site.

Back in the eighties, I took a Youth Hostel tour of southern England.
After we'd been there a couple of weeks, I skillfully executed a
perfect left turn -- and found myself on the opposite side of the road
from my companions.

I had stopped being nervous about riding on the "wrong" side of the
road.

I had the same experience, but driving a car. Far scarier.

It was a business trip, and my colleague had promised he would drive
back to the hotel from the pub, since I'd been doing all of the driving
till then. But he lost his nerve when it was time to leave and made me
drive. I'd had two beers, and perhaps that was the reason for my mistake.

I corrected immediately, of course, but I shudder to think of the
consequences if there had been traffic.

Back in the eighties, I took a Youth Hostel tour of southern England.
After we'd been there a couple of weeks, I skillfully executed a
perfect left turn -- and found myself on the opposite side of the road
from my companions.

I had stopped being nervous about riding on the "wrong" side of the
road.

I had the same experience, but driving a car. Far scarier.

It was a business trip, and my colleague had promised he would drive
back to the hotel from the pub, since I'd been doing all of the driving
till then. But he lost his nerve when it was time to leave and made me
drive. I'd had two beers, and perhaps that was the reason for my mistake.

I corrected immediately, of course, but I shudder to think of the
consequences if there had been traffic.

I found that the problem was most noticeable when approaching a
"round-about" (rotary traffic circle). "Which way! Which way!
--
Cheers,

Back in the eighties, I took a Youth Hostel tour of southern England.
After we'd been there a couple of weeks, I skillfully executed a
perfect left turn -- and found myself on the opposite side of the road
from my companions.

I had stopped being nervous about riding on the "wrong" side of the
road.

I pulled the same boner in 1972 on the same sort of tour.
I had the same experience, but driving a car. Far scarier.

It was a business trip, and my colleague had promised he would drive
back to the hotel from the pub, since I'd been doing all of the driving
till then. But he lost his nerve when it was time to leave and made me
drive. I'd had two beers, and perhaps that was the reason for my mistake.

I corrected immediately, of course, but I shudder to think of the
consequences if there had been traffic.

I served in Cyprus for seven months and returned to Canada. I took my car out of storage and was driving back to base. It all went well until my first left turn. I saw a vehicle coming straight at me and thought, "Look at that silly ass, he's in the wrong lane." I flashed my lights at him. Then it dawned on me, "I'm the silly ass." Fortunately, the revelation came while the other vehicle was still several hundred metres away.
--
Andrew Chaplin
SIT MIHI GLADIUS SICUT SANCTO MARTINO

When we tell people that it isn't a good idea to wreck your knees and
exhaust yourself by slogging up hills, they seem to think that we're
saying "spin furiously and get all out of breath".

The idea is to shift down until you can keep up your normal cadence
without pushing any harder than usual. When you can do that, a hill
is no problem at all. Boring, perhaps, but not a problem.

While you are certainly I find spinning up hill to be, well sort of
counter intuitive. After all one is going up a hill which everyone
knows is hard work so one should be working harder :-)

Shouldn't one?

A corrected post :-(
While you are certainly correct I find spinning up hill to be, well
sort of counter intuitive. After all one is going up a hill which
everyone knows is hard work so one should be working hard :-)
--
Cheers,

Snow season started last Monday, and I'm shut in until after New
Year's. I hope I get my alpaca tights darned by then.

In the meanwhile, I'm trying to drive the car once in a while to build
up my rotator cuff. At the moment, I can ride much farther than I
dare to drive.

Or I could have a week ago . . .

Isn't there some sort of recovery exercises or stretches for rotator
cuff rehabilitation? Years ago I had what was referred to as a "frozen
shoulder" and had to go to the clinic every morning at about 08:00
where a nice young Siri Lankan girl would move my shoulder further and
further every day.

And when I'd scream she'd say something like "You can tell its doing
good when it hurts" :-)
--
Cheers,